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Organizational Portal


Man in blue finds info on "ORGANIZATIONAL PORTAL" using magnifier. Blue and gray digital interface with flowchart in background.

Today, many people use the word Portal. Many substitute it for the older term, Intranet. What's the difference between a Portal and an Intranet? What are the main characteristics of an Enterprise Intranet Portal, and how does all this relate to knowledge management?


An Intranet is any application built with internet technology that serves internal organizational purposes. That is, it utilizes the technological tools of the Internet and leverages the connectivity capabilities to serve the organization's needs. Often, it's managed locally on the LAN and doesn't even use wide area communication lines, such as the WAN. Examples of intranet applications include the entire range of organizational applications, both operational (such as CRM and ERP) and office/administrative (such as an organizational directory). An end user who isn't a "technologist" can identify such an application by how it operates: it doesn't require installation and is operated through the browser.


The Enterprise Portal (organizational portal) is a specific type of Intranet application. Its purpose is to serve as the gateway for organizational employees to all organizational applications, providing convenient access to organizational content. Convenient access to content means both organizing it in an accessible and convenient way, enabling quick and simple search, and through push mechanisms for news, content, and notifications about the arrival of new content and/or updates to existing ones.


The organizational portal is essentially a smart desktop, containing the following components:

  1. Application execution - access to applications at several levels: a. Running an external window from within the tool. b. Running the application as an internal sub-window on the desktop. c. Possibility of parameter transfer between different applications that don't know each other, but know how to receive/transfer parameters to the external world via Drag & Drop.

  2. Personalization - ability for the user to see only part of the content/applications (as determined by the organization), and based on these: a. Add additional permitted external applications to the desktop (such as weather status). b. Remove from the permitted applications (that aren't mandatory) applications that aren't frequently used. c. Change location, size, and sometimes even color of different applications on each page.

  3. Content search and guided navigation - access capability (Pull) to different content (constituting pieces of knowledge). Access can be through one of several methods: a. Associative navigation in a hierarchical tree of content (Navigation). b. Free search by string (possible in combination with filters). Additional details about the search can be read in previous issues discussing the organizational knowledge farm.

  4. Knowledge push - updating users with news, and updating users with new/updated content. Knowledge push can be achieved through Banners (scrolling messages), bulletin boards, and a personal update area. It's possible to subscribe to changes in defined content. It's possible to register automatic entities as subscribers, according to their field of occupation. It's possible to allow copying of messages from the "update area" to the organizational mail system.

  5. Quick access to common queries from important databases. Examples include open service calls and new customers.

  6. Management of interest groups (Virtual Communities) - managing contact between knowledge holders in different subjects. This management can be carried out through several methods:

    1. Chats - online conversations with other people currently connected.

    2. Discussion Groups - threading of questions and answers, or statements and responses (and counter-responses, etc.).

    3. FAQ - repository of frequently asked questions and answers (static). d. Tips repositories - for the defined subject.

  7. Workflow - small scenario-driven applications.


And of course, all of these are accompanied by backend infrastructure (hopefully strong and stable).


What's the relationship between the organizational portal and knowledge management?

It seems clear. The portal constitutes one of the central components of the shared infrastructure for knowledge management within the organization, particularly in knowledge retrieval and distribution.

Want to learn more about portals and channels?

Here are some articles you might find interesting:

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